I’ve often written in the last few months about the dearth of
\nsinger\/songwriters on the market now. We seem to lose at least one
\neach decade: Jim Croce in the ’70s, Harry Chapin in the ’80s, John
\nDenver last year.<\/p>\n
Into this void steps Tom Freund, a singer whose vocals sound
\nlike a cross between Daniel Johnston, Bob Dylan and Gordon Gano.
\nHis debut release,
\nNorth American Long Weekend<\/i>, is one that’s short on energy
\nbut offers more than just a glimmer of hope for this newcomer.<\/p>\n
Freund, whose resume includes time with The Silos, takes a very
\nlow-key approach to the 13 songs on this first solo effort. It is
\nan effect that builds up with the listener in stages. On the first
\nlisten, you’re bored to tears until there is a brief hint at life
\nwith an uptempo number. On the second listen, things become more
\nmanageable. By the third listen, everything seems like it always
\nfell into place.<\/p>\n
The songs on
\nNorth American Long Weekend<\/i> sing about hope in the midst of
\ndespair, and freedom in the middle of feeling trapped. (Admittedly,
\nI don’t have as solid a grasp on all the tracks; I lived with this
\ntape for three days, and I still don’t think I got all the
\nnuances.) This is evidenced on the opening track “Digs,” a
\nrelationship song which dares to tell the inamorata of one’s life
\nto stop trying to change everything about the other person. It
\ntakes a few listens to clearly get the message on this one, but
\nwhen you do, it hits with all the power of an 18-pound
\nsledgehammer.<\/p>\n
Alienation creeps into the album on tracks like “More Than
\nNecessary” and “27,” the latter being one of my favorite tracks off
\nthe album. The search of finding yourself (and, if I heard
\ncorrectly, finding someone to spend the rest of your life with) is
\na difficult path to explore; Freund (with the help of a band that
\nbounces from acoustic folk to jazz to rock) at least lets the
\nlistener know that they’re not alone. The Dylan influences rear
\ntheir head on “Lady Jane,” easily the prettiest number on the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
But not everything on
\nNorth American Long Weekend<\/i> clicks. No matter how hard I
\ntried, I simply could not get into (nor could I grasp the meanings
\nof) “Trondheim” and “Holden Caulfield.” It’s not that they’re bad
\nsongs, it’s just that they seemed to lose their focus, which kept
\nthe listener from finding theirs. (For that matter, when most of
\nthe songs on an album are played at a tempo which rivals a New
\nOrleans funeral march, slightly faster-tempoed songs peppered
\nthroughout the album would have been quite welcome.)<\/p>\n
In fact, the only faster-tempoed number – the title track –
\nworks the best among the whole batch of songs. It’s not that Freund
\nshould abandon slower-tempoed numbers, but when they make up the
\nbulk of the album, it tends to drag down the project quickly.
\nGranted, repeated listens help matters – but not every listener is
\ngoing to be willing to give any album that much leeway.<\/p>\n
The only other point where a listener will have to grow into
\nNorth American Long Weekend<\/i> is in the category of Freund’s
\nvocals. They are distinctive, to say the least – a combination of
\nstrained, passioned delivery and a bit of a bleat to them, not
\nunlike Dylan.<\/p>\n
\nNorth American Long Weekend<\/i> shows that the journey of a
\nthousand miles was not completed with this album, but Freund has a
\npretty good start on the road to becoming the singer\/songwriter for
\nthe ’90s and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7538],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39312","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-freund","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39312"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}